The Hindu : Making of poets

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 11, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Making of poets

Dawn Wood, poetess, at the Poetry Group meet at British Library in the city on Saturday. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

Thiruvananthapuram Jan. 10. Thoughts and emotions came alive on paper as the young writers switched to the creative mode. The small lecture hall in the British library turned out to be a resource workshop on Saturday evening during the third anniversary celebrations of the Poetry Group of the Culture Cafe.

While the plants and animals dominated the thoughts of school students, the lines penned by the seniors reflected their personal experiences. For the handful of young writers, it was an occasion to read out their poems in front of Dawn Wood, a Scottish poetess, who is now working on her doctoral thesis on `The art and science of animal husbandry'.

"It is indeed happy for me to be in India, the land of myths, varied cultures, legends and folk tales. Even the splash of colourful attires here is an inspiration for my poetry," said Ms.Wood who is working as science lecturer in the University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland. She is also a painter who is interested in the interactions between poetry and science.

"Even personal experiences could turn out to poems," she added in between the lines of a poignant poem on the death of her father two years ago.

For the schoolgirl, Anupama Raju, the war waged against the Coca-Cola was the theme while it was the monthly meeting of the Poetry Group which came in as the theme for some others.

"I am really amazed to find young children writing poems at a time when their parents do not give them time to even think of anything other than entrance examinations and tuitions," said Ms. Jancy James, director of the Centre for Comparative Literature of the Institute of English, Kerala University.

"If poetry does not come out like the leaves of a tree, let it not come. Don't force anyone to write. The moment of expression should come from your inner self," was her advice to the young poets.

"Where were you when I cried alone? / The words of comfort never reached my ear...."--these lines from `My Soul of Hope' came from George Kolath, working as the Human Resource Manager in a software company at the Technopark here.

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Making of poets

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